This project is submitted for

Description

Details

Hello, I’m Philip Cox. I’ve been an Aerospace Systems Engineer for the last thirty years. I’ve done a lot of things, but I hope that the best is still ahead of me.

I’d like to present to you a concept that’s been cooking in my head for the past few decades. Let’s start with a little background … In R. Buckminster Fuller’s “critical path” he presents and illustration of Manhattan island with a huge geodesic dome covering much of the borough.

Bucky was the inventor (some say ‘popularizer’) of the geodesic dome – he envisioned covering entire cities with vast domes to protect them. Bucky pointed to a number of reasons why such mega-structures are desirable. He was also quick to point out, however, the difficulties humanity would have building such structures using then-current construction technology. Undeterred, he extrapolated other possibilities of his geodesics.

Fuller realized that geodesic construction might permit one to make structures so large that the volume of air enclosed in them could actually outweigh the materials comprising the structure. If one enclosed heated air, the structure could conceivably become buoyant in the atmosphere – a vast hot-air balloon. I once sat down and calculated just how big one such geodesic dirigibles would have to be – it turns out that a sphere 800 meters or larger is the threshold at which the air inside the structure begins to out weigh the containing structure.

His concept appeared roughly twenty years before George Lucas gave us the floating city of Bespin.

Fuller had no way to construct such a beast, of course. Which brings me to the sticking point: We can imagine mega-structures on Earth and in space, but we have devoted little or no effort into developing techniques to build them. Human construction technology remains mired in the past. We continue to build using traditional, waddle-and-daub, tinker-toy construction methodologies – only applying new materials as they’ve become available.
Imagine the expense in resources required to build a dome over Manhattan one beam at a time... now imagine building a one kilometer sphere in space, one stick at a time, each lifted from Earth. We aren’t going to do it.
That doesn’t mean, however, that we can’t build mega-structures. I’ve pondered this question over my entire life. I’ve come to the conclusion that, to build big, we have to think small. . ..

Diatoms and Radiolaria have been making their own geodesic shells for over 500 million years. They secrete silica to form rigid frameworks to armor themselves or increase their apparent surface area for photosynthesis. These microscopic creatures secrete their structure – typically using a simple geometrical initiator, like a circle, triangle, hexagon, or some other simple geometric shape.
If you perked up at the mention of an ‘initiator’, you probably suspect, now, where I’m going with this . . . fractals. In short, fractal constructions require an Initiator, a Generator, and a Rule (or Rules) of orientation. Time is too short here for further details of fractals, so, I’ll cut to the chase.
The project I’ve been working on for years (mostly as a design exercise) is to create little open-source construction robots – I’ve been calling them BuckyBots – to build mega-structures.

A BuckyBot consists of a small 3D printer in which the print head has up to (maybe) 6 Degrees-of-Freedom. It makes a simple 3-dimensional fractal initiator, such as a tetrahedron, over and over, and over. That’s all it does – ever.
It has the ability to climb, like a spider, onto and over the tetrahedrons it has already built to add another course to the structure. We give it simple orientation rules so that it changes its orientation relative to previous “cells”. Eventually, by following simple rules, it will construct a closed shape – like a dome, or a box, or whatever 3-dimensional shape we fancy.
It can build any stiffening interior structure as required.
Multiple...

1. I have a new circuit board that does the bot location and orientation. It has GPS, a compass, 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyros, and a barometer. All on a board 4.5 cm x 3.5 cm (roughly). The design will shortly be available on the ranarchy.com pages. Also, the bare boards will be available to the public at Cheap Dirty Boards.

2. The LED controller to drive the leg servos didn't work out. Instead, I'm making a board using 18 one-shots and a good-ole 555-timer (with digital pots to control the servo pulse-width) that should drive the six legs of the BuckyBot.

3. Extruder for the bot is almost complete. Most of this development will be parallel with the rest of the effort.

I haven't gotten around to entering the 2015 prize competition yet. So, I assume maybe the April 3 link on the blog might be a subtle suggestion. So, OK, we'll try again for 2015.

Using transparent plastic or glass filament (in a clear epoxy matix), BuckyBot SHOULD be able to make a transparent/translucent dome and make a greenhouse.

We've already explored solar distillation: Build a translucent dome over a salt lake/shallow bay. Sunlight warms up the water under the dome -- increasing humidity. At night, the dome inside surface will collect dew, which runs down the underside to the base of the dome. Fresh water from salt water! Catch basins around the base collect and hold the H2O.

Well, since I screwed-up posting my "completed" systems design document on Sept. 28, I've decided to run amok, and present a visceral, kick'em-in-the ... uh ... teeth! ... yea, teeth! ... video as a response to the "promotional" video requirement for Oct. 27. It is unclear to me if considered contestants will we "invited" to submit such a video, or if it is a requirement for continued consideration. It should all be over by then, I think.

Regardless, I'll post it way before then ... maybe this coming weekend. My video editing is limited to Kdenlive and openshot and downloaded pics and vids. "Damnit Jim, I'm an engineer, not a videographer!"

... is it just me, or did some of the videos submitted so far look like they spent all their time on the videos rather than their design?

...with the document that was finished, but not uploaded by Sept. 28th. my bad... Unfortunately, much more comprehensive than the one it replaces ... which was just a place holder (and is what the judges will see).

Discussions

Become a member

Love the idea, but I'm wondering how you maintain it? when parts of the plastic become corroded by UV and weaken the structure how do you replace them or patch them? I assume more bots of course, but when you're talking thousands of tons of plastic hanging over everyone's heads it seems... I don't know... scary. And what if the citizens below don't want it anymore? How do you take down a monolithic dome piece by piece?

Don't assume it's plastic. Only development domes are intended to be plastic (even though modacrylic shrugs off UV). We plan to ultimately use stainless. Depending on the size and environment, some domes may have internal structure - like hyperbolic/fractal struts. Taking it down, if ever, is the reverse of putting it up. Being scared of the dome over one's head? Personal problem. We go to sports events all the time in covered stadiums with tons of structure over the fans heads, but they want to be there. BuckyBot, he don't worry about claustrophobics.

Well I certainly would love to see a BuckyBot built dome! If nothing else, it would be fascinating to watch and I'm sure there would be some wonderful applications for it. I'll of course opt-out from living under one since I have "personal problems" with it ;-) But hey, when the earth turns into a fossil fuel warmed desert and your domes are saving us all I might change my tune. Good luck and I'll keep an eye on this project for sure.

I work with Randy and I have extensively drilled him about every aspect of this project. He has thought through and solved every issue I brought up. This sounds far out on the surface but the engineering is solid and this process can be achieved. I think there are many applications for this: Swimming pool enclosures(made from clear materials), How much does a sports dome cost to build? How about turning it over to make the worlds largest parabolic antenna? Good luck my friend.

Once you move past cheap, common 3d printer materials like plastic, it's going to really start paying off in time and complexity to divide the roles of your bots into shape makers, transporters, holders, and fusers.

absolutely right Garrett. We plan to eventually build using stainless steel. There will BuckyBots to skin the structures, Bots to clean/polish surfaces, Bots to repair and maintain ... bot functions will multiply like lemmings.... Check out my blog, where I ramble about the future of BuckyBots and megastructures...

Has stainless steel wire deposition been demonstrated? I thought it was all powder bed stuff, which would be hard to use in a mobile bot. I guess the patents are up this year, so you could design a new printer head yourself for any material you wanted.

Don't know if SS wire has been demonstrated -- other metals certainly have. I have confidence in the evolution of technology, though. When we need it, it will come. I have no problem designing printer heads. I am also looking at a filament/extruder that deposits melted plastic around a filament as it goes.

Everyone, thanks much for your supporting comments. Regardless of how the HackaDay prize turns out, I promise to continue BuckyBot development. It might just be the culmination of my life's work . I have been through the math, and I can't really see anything that stops the show. It will take years before we get to the 1 Km dome, but the concept appears sound. I just need to grind out the hardware/software.

Don't be disappointed by the outcome of the first voting! Your project seems to be very ambiguous and as soon as you will post a video of a crawling 3D printing hexapod it will change. Right now you are setting the first milestones as it seems and this may occur not as far developed as the projects of the top 15 list, so they might be skeptical about it's outcome. Just keep on working on it, find some guys who want to make more out of their hexapods to join you and post updates, videos, pictures, notes, sketches and stuff. I hope you don't feel offended by an arduino-blinky-stuff-developing greenhorn, but you should not look to the left and right but on your project :) I believe in your 3D printing hexapod! Good luck with it!

I concur ... hope that will be the case. These are all really cool projects, with obviously clever protagonists, but how do they measure up to the stated goals of the contest? Regardless, TheHackadayPrize has spurred me into actually putting BuckyBot theory into practice, which I plan to continue REGARDLESS of the competition outcome.

I gotta say, I'm kinda dissapointed in the voting so far ... BuckyBot wasn't even listed in the top 15 concepts. I thought the Hackaday Prize was trying to promote culture-changing hacks. It makes me wonder what's wrong with the concept? Just too far a stretch for believability?

I say nothing! I am also a bit disappointed with the number of things that are at the top of the list. I am not sure we another Arduino dev board controlling some leds, etc. As far as the voting, it seemed that the questions they post (Which project most likely to be used in another project) might bias the results. I think questions like these don't represent the best projects for this topic space. I.E. Big/new ideas can sometimes be hard to recognize next to the 100 other project that more of the same.

I honestly think it will work itself out by the time the the official judges get to it.

It's definitely out there, but that's the point right? You were one of the earliest featured projects on hackaday.com so you stood out, that's for sure. I sort of feel the same, but the main point of hacking isn't just to win a competition, it's to share something with the community.

The more non-consensous a concept is, the higher potential it has to become truly culture-changing. And even though hackaday.io surely is about hacking, it's also emerging from a certain culture in it's own consens. So don't be so disappointed, if the masses don't understand it, it's just right! Hope that makes sense, happy hacking!

Thanks for entering The Hackaday Prize! I'm following buckybot closely! Awesome stuff.
Usually I say don't forget to update - but with 26 updates as of this comment, i'd say you're doing pretty darn good :) Keep up the good work, and good luck on your way to SPaaaaaaace!

Hi Randy--can you start posting more stuff on this page? I'm having trouble finding my way around your website; for example, the link you posted recently for the schematic PDF doesn't appear to work. Any way you can upload all your files to a Dropbox repo and share 'em that way? Maybe a directory structure like this:

Something like this would have been great for use in containing dust form Chernobyl. I think I read somewhere that they are working on massive steel dome to cover the crumbling reactor building to contain radioactive dust that may be released as the building falls apart.

Please post your suggestions for uses of structures built by BuckyBot here ... I'm trying to accumulate as many as possible. The hack/make community can think of many more than just my old, decrepit neurons can manage ...